IL's Summer School: Army defenseman Bill Henderson

Editors Note: This is the first in what we hope is a summer-long series going into the various pursuits that collegiate lacrosse players get into in the gap between Memorial Day and the first day of practice.

While plenty of players obviously spend their days working camps or playing in summer leagues, the stories we're hoping to tell are a bit more unique. We got the idea from an email that Army Sports Information Director Tim Volkmann sent us detailing some of the cool stuff the Cadets are doing this summer, and have already had some other great responses from other schools, so we should have some good stuff to work with.

If you are a college player with a sweet internship or job (or know of someone fitting those circumstances), feel free to give us a heads up at Info@Insidelacrosse.com.

Our first subject, owing to the fact that it was Volkmann that got the ball rolling, is Army defenseman Bill Henderson.

It doesn't take much examination to realize that the life of the student-athletes at our nations Service Academies differ drastically from those at every other institution of higher learning in the country.

There's the military commitment upon graduation, which puts these young men and women in harms way for several years, even if they choose not to make a career out of their military service. Then there's the combination of difficult classwork combined with in-school training, and the cherry on top is the pressures and commitments that all Division I athletes share, service academy or no.

But the silver lining is some of the opportunities these folks get to check out through Army's Academic Individual Advanced Development (AIAD) program, like Bill Henderson and teammate Matt Hurley, who are both spending part of their summers at the FBI training facility in Quantico, VA learning from the Hostage Rescue Team.

"We come down for three weeks and bounce around the different areas and see what these guys do in their everyday, in addition to taking a trip up to FBI headquarters and got an overview of the entire organization," Henderson says.

The Hostage Rescue Team was founded in the early 1980s and serves as an FBI counter-terrorism paramilitary tactical team trained to rescue U.S. citizens or others who are held by a hostile force. In one sense, the HRT operates as a national-level SWAT team handling dangerous and sensitive situations within the United States.

Henderson's interest in the group sprang from a personal interest in the group's work, spurred by former teammate Kevin Woodchecke - who had participated in the program - and its application in his major - international law.

"A lot of the stuff we do here has a lot of applications to what I'll be doing in the army," he says. "This is something that has definitely been an interest for a while, and possibly something I could do as a career later on [after my service.]"

The training itself has been keeping Henderson on his toes, between working with the elite soldiers that comprise the unit (most, Henderson says, are former Rangers and other Special Forces operators) and learning the different aspects of what they do to stay on top of their job. He has worked with the groups canine units and enjoyed that, while also getting training twice a week from a well known mixed martial arts fighter.

"They don't really teach the leadership that you see, but all of these guys are pretty elite soldiers, and they're on a team," he says. "You really get to see how they work together as equals and that, for somebody like me, is great to see. These folks that are the most elite at their job are trying to work together as a team rather than one guy leading the group."

It's a lifestyle that is decidedly different from the other players to come out of Henderson's hometown of Tully, NY. Their reaction to his summer gig was met with both respect and a bit of relief when he stopped in the upstate town between Army's loss to Cornell in the NCAA quarterfinals and his departure for Quanitico, which is south of Washington D.C. along the Potomac River.

"I would say the majority of them are pretty impressed, but also glad they get to hang out at home and play lacrosse all summer," he said. "They realize I'm doing this for down the road and it's worth it to give up some time and get better at this.

"Some of the things I've done in the summer (which also include stints at Air Assault school - repelling from helicopters, etc; an internship at Lockheed Martin and medical training and battlefield triage) are opportunities that I think a lot of guys would do in a heartbeat. But some of the tougher stuff, I'm sure they're happy they can just kick back on the couch and have a regular summer."

But don't feel too bad for Bill Henderson. After his training session is over, he will be spending the rest of his summer shadowing a Lieutenant.